Closing the rifts

Besides Orifil, who stayed on the airship for repairs, the remaining love interests and Katharin were closing the rifts.

“KAHAHA! Die! DIE!!” A red dragonoid landed heavy blows, relying purely on his body and physical strength to smash the eldritch creature into the ground. Several tendrils clung to his copper muscles so he slammed into several buildings to get them off.

The students on logistics duty were tearily begging him to end things neatly with mana instead. All the budget was already spent on damage recovery and compensation from the hijacking but there Tenga was, creating more destruction!

“One pothole, two potholes…” The voice of a student who was recording on his device trailed off as his eyes rolled back.

The long, snowy hair of a tall man was swept by the wind as his arm moved up and down, as if he was sewing something in the air. The instructor spoke to his pupils as he worked, “There are many theories about the rifts. Some scholars say that they are the side effects from the permanent damage to the fabric of our world due to the Cataclysm. Some say that it was in preparation for the merger with an unknown 6th realm, while others say that we are being invaded by another world and these monsters that pour out are the scouts. However, there is no evidence to—”

“AAAHH quit harping on! This isn’t class!” Tenga grumbled, covering his ears. Not that that would help, consider how advanced his hearing was.

“Have you forgotten that the finals are coming?” William gave a warm smile that didn’t reach his eyes. The second prince wore a black robe over the academy sportswear, and repelled a monster with the bone staff in his hand.

“Oh no!” Sylvan cried. It really slipped his mind. He was confident about practicals but the theory… he wanted to go back in time and strangle the Sylvan at the start of the year. Why did he take Ancient History?? Or Civilization and Culture of the Old Age? Who cared about the days before the New Age?

“But we just had midterms!” The dragonoid was also in tears.

“That was almost half a year ago, Tenga. Finals are in 20 days, 7 hours and 5 minutes.” William happily gave them another stab.

Sylvan hit the ground in despair, “It’s not even the full month!”

Hale looked at William’s playful face. His impression of the lich had changed a lot over time but that didn’t mean he liked the slimy bastard. But Hale understood that even if he didn’t like natto or stinky tofu, that didn’t mean there was no one who liked them. One man’s trash was another’s treasure, right? As long as it wasn’t his sister’s treasure, that was.

And although William had the perfect alibis, the Watchers confirmed that one of the buyers of the trafficking incident four years ago was a lich. They wanted able-bodied strongmen and women to build an undead army. It was best for them to be in good condition which was why even though the kids were left injured, the criminals healed the adults. Of course, William didn’t have to be the lich who placed an order but almost all liches were part of the royal family and Hale, with a severe bias against the prince, already deemed him guilty by association.

And Hale didn’t forget who planted Amon in the Tenebris family. Even though Amon didn’t seem to have done anything harmful yet, even a prince would find it a waste to place a valuable swordmaster in a declining family. So whatever William wanted must be of greater value than that.

“Hale, don’t frown!” Katharin pressed the folds on his forehead.

The girl was on break after a long healing session. Hale was the first person she thought of whenever she was weary. The one solace in her long and arduous trek. And now that he stopped avoiding her, she was going to hound him to her heart’s content! “What are you thinking about?”

Hale dabbed at the sweat on her forehead with a handkerchief and generated a cool breeze with wind and ice magic. He didn’t have the mana to do anything grand, but it was enough if he could make her life slightly more comfortable.

“Nothing much. Just…”

The once peaceful village was now a messy landscape broken by rifts and the occasional escapee monster. But at the same time, there was a serious instructor, a rampaging dragon, an evil lich and a silly fairy trying to bring things back to how they were. And in the airship hovering far above, was an amorous nephilim waiting for them to be ready for the trip back.

They weren’t just characters in a story and a few lines of information weren’t enough to depict who they were. Beyond their role as potential love interests, they had careers and goals, relationships and beliefs. They were alive.

And so was…

He turned to Katharin and their eyes locked. Just as there was only him reflected in her sunset eyes, he knew that there was only her reflected in his. For a moment, the world fell away and it was as though they were the only ones in this noisy, rowdy place.

It seemed that he could finally put a name to the weird feeling in his chest.

“I was just thinking that this isn’t too bad.”

“Right? I think so too.”